Sponsored and Affiliate Events XX International AIDS Conference, July 2014

Strong presence from U.S. delegates includes highly anticipated two late-breaker sessions and affiliated independent event

Delegates from San Francisco AIDS Foundation will have a strong presence abroad in Melbourne at the 20th International AIDS Conference, also known as AIDS 2014. Their contributions to this premiere gathering of top thought leaders in the HIV field will include poster presentations, two late-breaker sessions and an affiliated independent event.

Highlights include:

Poster presentations throughout the week will cover topics on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), gay men’s sexual health, linkage between social marketing and community service to HIV prevention, development of Young Black Gay Men’s Leadership Initiative, and community based rapid HIV testing.

Magnet Director Steve Gibson, MSW, will moderate an affiliated independent event co-hosted with Victorian AIDS Council on the evening of Monday, July 21, focused on how PrEP is revolutionizing gay men’s activism. Featured speakers will include Social Marketing Manager Megan Canon, MPH, and Senior Policy Adviser Judith Auerbach, PhD.

Chief Medical Officer Robert Grant, MD, MPH, who is also the iPrEx Protocol Chair, will present the results of iPrEx Open-Label Extension (OLE) as a late-breaker session on Tuesday, July 22.

Director of Program Development & Operations Jen Hecht, MPH, is listed as a co-author for the late-breaker session on Thursday, July 24, comparing the HIV epidemiology and prevention responses in London and San Francisco.

See below for a fuller list of events and activities of San Francisco AIDS Foundation staff at AIDS 2014:

SATURDAY, JULY 19

PRE-CONFERENCE FORUM

The Global Forum on MSM & HIV Pre-Conference Event: Setting the Pace: Gay Men, MSM, and Transgender People in the Global AIDS Response

Co-Chair: Judy Auerbach, Senior Policy Adviser

Time: (Day One) 9am to 5pm; (Day Two) 9am to 12:45pm

Venue: Melbourne Town Hall

The Global Forum on MSM & HIV will provide a platform to exchange the most recent research, best practices, and advocacy strategies that advance the overall goal of universal access for men who have sex with men and transgender people. Judy Auerbach is co-chair of the pre-conference Community Based Participatory Research Session: How to Walk the Walk Not Just Talk the Talk.

SUNDAY, JULY 20

SATELLITE SESSION: SUSA24

Intersecting Risks, Strategies and Barriers for Key Affected Populations to Prevent and Treat HIV: How to Step Up the Global Gender Pace

Discussant: Judy Auerbach, Senior Policy Adviser

Organizer: RTI Global Gender Center and RTI International

Time: 1:30pm to 3:30pm

Venue: Clarendon Auditorium

Gender inequities are a major barrier to reaching and treating vulnerable women who carry the burden of HIV globally. Innovative strategies for at-risk couples, sex workers and partners have become part of an arsenal of tools necessary to combat the disparity and continue prevention and treatment efforts. This collection of global presentations will highlight intersecting risks of key affected populations and how on the ground community solutions can work. Presentations include: 1) Challenging Gender Roles Among Serodiscordant Couples to Reduce Risks in South Africa; 2) People Who Inject Drugs in Intimate Relationships: It Takes Two to Combat HIV; 3) Male Clients of Female Sex Workers in Tijuana, Mexico: Intervention Design, Baseline Findings, and HIV Correlates; 4) Methods for Increasing Access and ARV Retention among Sex Workers and Drug Using Women in Pretoria, South Africa: Structural and Individual Determinants.

SATELLITE SESSION: SUSA35

Novel Modes of Inquiry to Achieve Effective HIV Prevention

Panelist: Judy Auerbach, Senior Policy Adviser

Organizer: Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations

Time: 3:45pm to 5:45pm

Venue: Room 103

The increasing emphasis on using antiretrovirals (ARV) for prevention confronts the HIV field with new challenges. Evidence of the efficacy of TasP (treatment as prevention) and PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) from randomized controlled trials has stimulated debate on acceptability, and on risk to existing safe sex practices (condom use). In addition there is the question of ‘effectiveness’ in post-trial roll-out. However, it is not clear that there is yet sufficient knowledge about social relations for devising strategies attuned to the contrary expectations of antiretrovirals in the context of existing prevention strategies. In this session, participants will be introduced to novel research methods devised within the discipline of design. Design-led methods generate a new sort of ‘data,’ potentially able to inform the complex and dynamic relations that people experience in dealing with multiple objects including HIV, condoms, diagnostic tests, prevention messages, and sexual partners.

MONDAY, JULY 21

POSTER PRESENTATION: MOPE257

Findings from a gay men's sexual health think tank meeting of advocates, researchers, and providers on using pre-exposure prophylaxis to redress disparities in provider-client communication around gay men's sexual health

SFAF and the Victorian AIDS Council (VAC) are convening an affiliated event at AIDS 2014 in Melbourne to hear the voices and experiences of the community activists and advocates for gay men’s health in the era of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).

The goals of this affiliated event are to: 1) hear from community activists and public health experts in the US, Peru and Australiaon their experiences with PrEP; 2) share resources that have been developed including the use of social media,consumer and provider educational materials about PrEP; and 3)provide a platform for others to share their experiences.

Providers, consumers, and stakeholders interested in sharing their experiences in community activism and resources that support gay men’s sexual health and information on accessing PrEP are invited to attend and participate.

The event is free. RSVP to gina.perry@hsf.com

TUESDAY, JULY 22

SYMPOSIA SESSION: TUSY02

Public Engagement with HIV Science

Co-Chair: Judy Auerbach, Senior Policy Adviser

Time: 11am to 12:30pm

Venue: Melbourne Room 2

There is a long pathway between demonstrating efficacy in clinical trials of new anti-HIV technologies and proving effectiveness in “real world” settings. That pathway is paved with combinations of technological, behavioral, social, political, and economic factors that ultimately play out in the actions of individuals to take up (or resist taking up) HIV prevention and treatment methods and incorporate them into their daily lives. To a great extent, whether and how this occurs is a reflection of public engagement in HIV/AIDS science—from basic perceptions and attitudes about biomedical research; meanings people give to products, technologies, their bodies, and their relationships; participation in and knowledge of the outcomes of research; and communication about scientific processes and outcomes. This session will examine how public engagement in science has evolved in the realm of HIV, including issues of inclusion, exclusion, exploitation and benefit, and what constitutes sound scientific research and actionable evidence.

LATE BREAKER ORAL ABSTRACTION SESSION: TUAC0105LB

Results of the iPrEx open-label extension (iPrEx OLE) in men and transgender women who have sex with men: PrEP uptake, sexual practices, and HIV incidence

The challenges and opportunities experienced by women using ARV-based prevention technologies, such as oral PrEP and microbicide gels, will be examined by an expert panel organized by FHI 360, with support from USAID. An overview of current and future biomedical options for women will be presented, followed by dialogue on gender-relevant topics such as product adherence, fertility concerns, engagement of male partners in women’s microbicide use, adolescents’ use, how to communicate effectively with women about microbicides, and considerations for rolling out microbicide services for women within national health care systems. Panel members will engage in a series of questions to elicit cross-cutting discussion about the role of biomedical technology for women’s prevention needs. Substantial time will be provided for dialogue with the audience.

NON-COMMERCIAL SATELLITE SESSION: THSA09

What Works and Why? : New developments in demonstrating the role and impact of community interventions within combination prevention

Panelist: Jen Hecht, Director of Program Development & Operations

Time: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Venue: Room 203–204

Understanding the role, quality and impact of HIV prevention interventions within a mix of complementary behavioral, structural and biomedical approaches can be a challenge. However, there are opportunities to build practice-based evidence, synergies and guidance by drawing on exciting new developments in quality improvement, systems thinking, theory based planning, realist evaluation, and mathematical modelling. Conducted by the W3 Project (ARCSHS, La Trobe University) and Quality Action (Europe), this discussion based session will review the opportunities and challenges in these developments, their potential to strengthen community driven combination prevention with key affected groups, and consider when and how such approaches may be most practically useful and politically feasible. The session includes panelists from Europe, North America, and Australasia.

About San Francisco AIDS Foundation

No city experienced epidemic levels of HIV faster than San Francisco. At San Francisco AIDS Foundation, wework to end the epidemic where it first took hold, and eventually everywhere. Established in 1982, our mission is the radical reduction of new infections in San Francisco. Through education, advocacy, and direct services for prevention and care, we are confronting HIV in communities most vulnerable to the disease. We refuse to accept that HIV transmission is inevitable. For more information, visit sfaf.org.

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